1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is a method for interfacing a plurality of client applications that utilizes client services and a core service to maintain data integrity across all client applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic information often is shared by a plurality of systems. When information is created or updated within one system, other systems will have no knowledge of this change, unless the change is manually replicated in all other systems. This type of approach will lead to having the same information duplicated on several systems, with different ‘identities’, still with no guarantee that the duplication was accurate or even occurred.
Information exchange is highly critical in the case of systems exchanging information within a defined information flow. For example System A might create or update information, parts of it later communicated to system B, and upon response from system B, will eventually communicate all the information to system C for reporting.
Application interfaces define and enforce business flow. In other words, once several applications have been interfaced, it is rather difficult to change how systems are used without losing functionality or causing problems. For example, a new patient could be created using either the Patient Scheduling system or the Billing system. If the operational system was not properly designed to handle how these two systems would be used, it would possibly create confusion.
In the usual approach to application interfaces, all systems establish bi-directional interfaces to one or many systems. The complexity of these interfaces might range from moderately difficult to problematic. This is especially the case with laboratory interfaces which are usually based on the Health Level 7 (HL7) protocol, the standard for exchanging such type of information. An important factor with this approach is how efficient will interfaces connect systems; much quality assurance is required for each interface. Also, as the number of systems grows linearly, the number of interfaces grows exponentially. Finally, in the current approach to application interfaces, if the network connection between the systems disconnects temporarily, updates in one system cannot be communicated to the other systems.
It is desired that an approach to application be developed to limit the complexity of connecting systems that currently exists with bi-directional interfaces. Furthermore, the system should be efficient and assure accuracy across each system.